The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has joined forces with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Acas to develop an online absence management tool for managers.
The toolkit provides best-practice guidance on managing short- and long-term absence and includes information on policies, return-to-work interviews, liaising with GPs, and making reasonable adjustments under the Disability Discrimination Act.
It also provides in-depth advice on developing an absence strategy and how to measure and benchmark absence levels.
Ben Willmott, employee relations adviser at the CIPD, said: “Employee absence is running at eight days per employee, per year, at a cost to business of £600 per employee, per year. Poor absence management has a negative impact on both business performance and employee wellbeing.
“High levels of employee absence incur hidden costs on productivity, quality of service or product, and customer satisfaction and loyalty. Not to mention the impact of absence on employees in terms of increased workloads and pressure on remaining staff, as well as on morale and staff retention.”
Bill Callaghan, chairman of the Health and Safety Commission, said: “The sustained health and wellbeing of working age people is paramount and this calls for leadership and commitment from the top, as well as determination and innovation throughout the organisation. This tool, developed jointly by the CIPD, HSE and Acas, will facilitate this.”
The toolkit is available via the CIPD, HSE and Acas websites.
